Loose Ends

A Foray into Historical Corsetry: 18th Century Stays

I’ve done quite a few spinning demo’s so far this year, and it’s been great fun chatting wool and teaching people how to spin and weave. While my natural style seems to be ever evolving into eccentric wool witch, one of the demo’s was a family event at the end of May, and somehow the witchy side of my wardrobe didn’t feel colourful enough for the occasion. Thankfully, I do own some brighter autumnal colours and my linen ‘pirate shirts’ are handy bases for any outfit, but I felt I should jazz it up a bit more.

I’ve been wanting to make more of my wardrobe with particular focus on historical clothing and Mandy Barrington’s book Stays & Corsets has been sitting on my bookshelf for the past five years waiting for me to pluck up the courage and have the time to make one. I’ve fallen in love with most of the corsets in the book, but have a particular soft spot for the 1735-1750 boned bodice from the National Trust’s collection since it was designed to be worn as a top layer, has beautiful lacing front and back, and the silhouette looks like it came from The Shire. So, with three weeks to go before the event in question and never having made a corset before, I decided this spinning demo was the perfect catalyst to start the project I’d been dreaming of making ‘one day’ – what could possibly go wrong?!…

The making of these stays was incredibly chaotic; I didn’t have a table free so my sewing machine and I were on the floor and since this was my first attempt at corsetry, I didn’t want to add in additional stress by trying to film it, so there is no ‘making of’ video this time, but I did remember to take the odd picture throughout and there is a short video of the final reveal.

Drafting The Pattern

Mandy Barrington’s book is a guide on drafting patterns for historical corsets; there are instructions on how to take a table of measurements and turn them into a paper pattern, but no guidance on how to make the garment (for guidance on that I watched copious Youtube videos, scoured other sources and ‘followed my nose’ when I wasn’t quite sure). Personally, I find drafting my own pattern to be easier than working with a commercial pattern for the following reasons:

A pattern that is drafted to my specific measurements is much more likely to fit without much adjustment after making a mock-up than the standardised sizing on commercial sewing patterns. The extra time it takes at the start saves time in the putting together.
By following the instructions on the pattern draft, I can understand exactly which measurements as being used where. If there is a problem with the fit later, it’s much easier for me to see where adjustments can be made; if one measurement needs to change I know what else in the pattern used that measure and might need adjusting too.
Self drafted patterns are net – I have to add my own seam allowance which makes it easier for me to sew as I use a vintage sewing machine without seam allowance guides.
I really hate flimsy tissue paper patterns. Even if you trace one size out to be able to use it again, they catch, rip, wrinkle and never fold back up as flat as they arrived. Drafting my own pattern means I can use thick paper which will last much longer and I avoid the inevitable wailing and gnashing of teeth!

I won’t go into great detail on the drafting process since it’s in the book; you first draft a basic block (which you can mock up in fabric to check the fit) before using these points to create the stays pattern. There are step-by-step instructions with clear diagrams, and I found it really easy to use.

Stays pattern drafted over the basic block before cutting it out

Mocking Up

I made a quick single layer mock-up in old cotton sheet using string to lace myself into it. Usually you’d use a thicker/stiffer fabric to check the fit of a fitted corset/stays as it will hold the shape better, however since this was my first time using this pattern, I wanted to check I wasn’t way off before cutting up anything better. I was initially pretty happy with the fit, but made a note to add a little extra height to the centre front panel to better cover the bust. I also wasn’t quite sure on my fabric choice (a green cotton backed with a heavy linen), so decided I would make up the stomacher (the part that slots behind the lacing at the front) properly with boning since there shouldn’t be any fit issues with that and I could try out the colour on a smaller section of fabric.

Part-way through sewing boning channels in the stomacher

That completed, I decided to try the mock-up on again with the stomacher in place and it was then I could see that something wasn’t quite right. The stomacher had helped more correctly position the cotton mock-up and I could now see the waist wasn’t sitting on my waistline. So I decided to re-take the length measurements and discovered a 4cm discrepancy in the nape to waist measurement (I’d asked someone else to take this measurement as I didn’t think measuring my own back would be accurate – ironically it was!). Happily, very little of the pattern drafting used this measurement, so I was able to cut the pattern pieces at the waist line and add in 4cm of extra paper, re-drawing the lines at the edges of the pattern so the new points connected at the right angle AND this also fixed my previous issue of the bust line being a bit low since the whole panel was raised from the waist!

Making the Stays

I didn’t have time to make another mock-up in stiffer fabric with boning and then make the stays (which would essentially be making two garments), so I decided to make one ‘mock-up’ but treat it as the real thing so that if all went to plan it would be good enough to finish and wear. I selected a thick brown/green cotton fabric for the outside and a white cotton for the lining, since I had enough of both to recut pieces if needed. It also complimented the green stomacher well (the stomacher wasn’t too short to be used and I added some trim around the edges to give it a little extra width – it isn’t too noticeable).

I cut out all the pieces in both fabrics, leaving more seam allowance than was nessecary so that I had some flexibility if I needed to adjust the seams (I felt this would be less wasteful than recutting whole pieces). Linings and outer fabric were then tacked (basted) together around the seam lines before the boning channels were stitched down.

Centre Front pieces prepared for boning channels with my very generous seam allowance

After all the sections of the stays were stitched together with boning channels I removed the tacking stitches and then spent several hours threading the cut ends of thread to the back of the stays and hiding all the tails in the lining.

Before and after tidying the thread ends

Then I could begin to assemble the stays. The example in Barrington’s book appears to have been stitched so the seam duplicates as a boning chanel running along the edges of each piece, so I aimed to replicate this on my version since it would also be easier to match up the chalk marks accurately by folding the seam allowance of one piece over and matching right sides together.

Centre front and side front pieces pinned ready for stitching

I repeated this for all the pieces until both sides of the stays were complete. I then cut my synthetic baleen boning¹ to fit the channels, filed the sharp ends and slotted it into the boning channels. I also attached the shoulder straps at this point (these I adapted slightly from the pattern as I wanted to have ties at the front).

Both sides of the stays finally starting to look like a garment

I then trimmed away the excess seam allowance (I’ll use the scraps for something in the future), finished the inside seams with thin cotton tape, hand embroidered the front and back eyelets and cut the hip tabs (and I didn’t document any of it until it was all done – oops!)

The reverse of the nearly finished stays

Finishing Touches

I raided my ribbon stash to find a trim to bind the raw edges with and ended up choosing a grey/green velvet which I managed to manouvre around the corners with some mitre-ing. Finally, I made eyelets on the shoulder straps and front panels and added ribbon ties (these can be replaced depending on the occasion). I grabbed some black cotton cord to loosely lace through the back and, with some help to adjust the back lacing, laced myself into the stays at the front (after the back was correctly fitted I was able to knot it in the right position, so I don’t need assitance getting into the stays anymore). And with that (and just in the nick of time), I had a pair of stays to wear to my demo!

Click on the image to see a short Youtube video showing how I put the stays on

For a first attempt, these were a very wearable mock-up that I plan to get a lot of use from. Interestingly, the day I wore this outfit happened to be the first of the UK heatwaves, so it also allowed me to conduct a little experiment. There is a myth often reinforced by media that corsets/stays were uncomfortable suffocating garments, however, if that were true women would not have worn them as supportive garments for hundreds of years as they got on with their everyday lives. While one could choose to tight lace if they so desired, the same discomfort can be endured wearing modern undergrarments if the wearer chooses. While actual baleen might not have been quite as flexible as the synthetic versions available today, the photo below illustrates just how bendy the stomacher is to show that I have much more movement than it might appear.

I was however, incredibly curious to see for myself how stays compare to the modern bra. I wore a linen shirt underneath the stays with a cotton skirt and was no hotter than I would have been in any other clothing that day despite wearing a close fitting garment, in fact I think the better posture I had from wearing the stays helped me to get through the suffocating heat. Overall, the stays were very comfortable and I’ll definitely be exploring some more historical corsetry in future!

Happy Sewing!

Tour De Fleece 2026 – The Final Wrap-up

Another year of Tour de Fleece has whizzed by and I’m taking stock of what I’ve managed to achieve this time round. After feeling quite leisurely during week one, weeks two and three have felt much more hectic, partly due to having to adapt my schedule around unexpected life goings-on in the background. I began week three frustrated; I’d only just started on the second box of zwartbles and felt like there was no way I would get through the rest of it by the end of the challenge. The heat slowed me down and restricted my fibre prep to when my wool picking ‘station’ was in the shade, but I kept chipping away at zwartbles mountain and somehow got through it all by the end of the week. I also had some time away from my wheel, so experimented with combing the angora goat so I could take my spindle along with me.

Day 16: More Zwartbles picking and spinning

Final Reflections

My total length spun this year was 5.38km (including the length x3 for plied yarns and a guestimate of 75m of angora goat since it’s still on my spindle and I didn’t want to unwind it mid-spin), which is only 300m down from last year when I had a lot more plying going on. It’s definitely the most fleece I’ve spun during a TDF challenge, but I’m still surprised that I managed to nearly meet last years yardage since the chunky skeins weren’t plied and aren’t as long. In spite of some slight hiccups throughout the challenge I kept up with my photos and video editing each day, and discovered some new features on my video editing software which was a bonus.

Taking a look back to my initial to-do list, let’s see how I did:

Zwartbles Rug Yarn – This was the biggest part of my challenge and definitely the most daunting. Despite a slow start as I realised my jumbo flyer wasn’t up to the task, my country spinner and I have become very well aqcuainted and I finished spinning this fleece by day 22. This means I can get to work throughout the rest of the year turning the yarn into rugs (and the boxes of fleece won’t be in the way).
Baby Alpaca – This was such a gorgeous fleece and a delight to spin. Most of this was spun during week 1, with the last skeins completed in week 2 and I’m very excited to present the yarn to the owner – it’s such a special moment when someone sees their fleece turned into a finished project.
Angora Goat – I didn’t have much opportunity for spindle spinning this year, and since the above two projects were my priority, not much of this got processed. When I put this on my list I never expected to make my way through all of it, so I’m happy to have ascertained that combing will definitely work to remove the sawdust and is much easier on the wrists with the combs mounted on the stand. Since the fleece is out, I’m hoping I’ll now have time to comb through it all in the coming months between my other projects (and maybe I’ll do a dedicated blog post on dealing with fleeces with lots of VM/tangles).
Challenges – I had to change my initial plans round a bit for these often resorting to plan B (or C!) when I didn’t have access to the resources for my intial challenge. My three challenges this year tested my skill and control over the fibre, from loooooong draw in windy conditions, trying a new fibre and testing my ability to spin while balancing. Despite my TDF challenges often being a little silly, I always learn something from them; this year I’ve discovered that I have much more control over my spinning that I thought – from my second attempt onwards balancing, I realised that I was more focused on my footing than I was on the spindle, which was encouraging should I ever need to spin on adverse terrain!

In all, I’m pleased with my spins this year – I’ve dealt with some of my stash and now have the equipment to revisit some older fleeces in my stash which is exciting! Thank you for following along with my challenge this year – I hope you’ve enjoyed the posts and videos. If you’ve also completed TDF, do let me know how your ‘wrap-up’ has gone in the comments below!

Happy Spinning!

Tour De Fleece 2026 – Week 2 Wrap-up

I’ve had slightly less TDF time this week as life got in the way. I tend to work most efficiently when my fibre prep/spinning is blocked in longer chunks of time so I can get into a rhythm, however this week I fitted in picking and spinning where I could, meaning I haven’t got through as much of my large boxes of zwartbles as I’d hoped, but progress has still been made. I managed to pick and spin the smaller box full of zwartbles, and the rest of the alpaca has been spun and plied. I’ve also washed the alpaca skeins and the zwartbles I’ve spun so far ready for measuring, which has cleared some floorspace and allowed me to put away some of my tools.

Day 9: The first bobbin full of zwartbles on my country spinner

Going into the final week, I have two larger boxes of zwartbles left to pick and spin, alongside the angora goat. I’m making faster progress now I’m getting used to the country spinner and not trying to fill the bobbin quite so full (the skeins it makes at full capacity are a bit unweildy for winding and washing!), and I’ve got my wool picker set up at a better height so I’m not stooped over which is also making life easier. We’ll see if this gets me closer to ticking off my ambitious to-do list over the final seven days!

Next week’s wrap-up will either be up on Sunday evening, or on Monday, depending on how quickly I can get the measuring and video editing done. If you are also joining in with Tour de Fleece I’d love to hear how your challenge is going, let me know in the comments below!

Happy Spinning!

Tour De Fleece 2026 – Week 1 Wrap-up

Looking back on my wrap-up’s from previous years, I usually find myself saying that the first week has flown by, however whether due to the heatwave, or having a slightly more relaxed diary after an extremely busy couple of months, this weeks spinning has felt much more relaxed for a change and I’ve spent anywhere between 2-6 hours each day.

I began by running headlong into a problem; after running half a box of zwartbles through the wool picker and starting to spin it, I realised that my jumbo flyer just wasn’t up to spinning the yarn diameter I wanted. The yarn wouldn’t wind onto the bobbin so I was having to stop and manually do this, which was a much longer and more stressful experience than it should be (and doesn’t do the wheel much good either). I had similar problems when trying to coreless corespin Lincoln longwool several years ago and have been keeping my eyes peeled for a secondhand specialised wheel for many years to no avail. With 3 large boxes of zwartbles waiting to be spun (and I still have the rest of the Lincoln longwool stored away), I decided to take the plunge and order an Ashford country spinner; I’ve been quite reluctant to get yet another spinning wheel, but considering the number of instances over the past decade I’ve been spinning where this type of wheel would have been so useful, I think it will earn it’s keep and will leave my jumbo flyer free to do the thinner corespinning and long length plying it’s best for.

While waiting for my new wheel to arrive, I swapped to processing the baby Alpaca and have made good progress on this throughout the week. Since this fleece is preserving memories I wanted to get the most out of it, so rather than skirting it on a table where I’d be a bit more ruthless, I’ve been manually picking through all of it before hand carding. I’m saving the ‘waste’ which isn’t suitable for spinning and will work with the owner to see what else they might like it turned into as I think it would felt quite well.

Day 1: Put half a box of zwartbles through the wool picker and filled one jumbo bobbin

I also took on what I’m calling the loooooong draw challenge (seeing how many metres can be spun in one draw) which was good fun and more successful than I thought, particularly considering I was borrowing a friends electric eel wheel and I’ve never used an electric spinning wheel before. I didn’t get any spinning done on 11th as I was preoccupied with finishing and assembling my country spinner, but now it’s ready to go I can hopefully vary my spinning content a little more over the next two weeks, crack on with the zwartbles and start to deal with that sawdust filled angora goat fibre.

If you are also joining in with Tour de Fleece I’d love to hear how you’re getting on, let me know in the comments below!

Happy Spinning!

Tour De Fleece 2026

It’s Tour de Fleece time again! This year’s challenge runs from 4th – 26th July

My Tour de Fleece challenge this year will focus around getting on top of my fleece stash after a busy few months where time for spinning has been in short supply. Once again, I’m counting fibre-prep as part of my challenge since it gives me some variety and means I haven’t had to fit in lots of prep ahead of time. Usually I set myself the goal of spinning for a minimum of 1 hour a day, however this year I’m planning to spend much longer than that. That said, I feel it’s important to say my goals this year are very ambitious; I am fortunate to try and go more wool crazy, but everyone has different commitments and life can often throw a spanner in the works. The internet makes it very easy for crafters to compare themselves to others and while there can be a competitive side to TDF, the purpose is to have fun, challenge yourself and maybe learn some new things – whatever your available time, goals and energy.

So, without further ado, what am I actually planning to get up to?

Zwartbles ‘Rug’ Wool – I’ve been skirting lots of these gorgeous fleeces and have recently washed the coarser wool from around the sides and rear of the fleeces in the suint bath. Many handspinners would discard this, but I hate waste and since it’s still very soft, I’ve decided to run it through the wool picker and spin it as chunky singles to weave rugs from at a later date.

Alpaca – I was recently asked if I could spin the fleece of a young alpaca that passed away shortly after shearing, and of course I agreed straight away. This is an absolutely gorgeous fleece and I’ve decided to hand card it to treat it with the reverence it deserves before spinning it as a standard 2-ply suitable for either knitting or weaving.

Angora Goat – During my early days of buying fleeces from online market places I purchased this curly Angora goat fleece. What I did not see in the picture was how much sawdust was caught up in the fibres (and how little would fall out after vigourous shaking and several rounds of washing). I bought the fleece to use the curls, but have come to the conclusion that the only way I’m going to get that pesky sawdust out and detangle the fibres is by putting it through my wool combs. I did a test of this a couple of years ago with my combs hand-held before I made the base and it was quite tough on my wrists, but I’m hoping it will be an easier process if they’re clamped to a table. If I can get it to comb then I plan to spin this as more of lace weight on my spindle so I have a travelling project – if it doesn’t want to play ball I’ll think of something else to use it for as it’s been sitting in a corner of shame for too long now!

Return of The Challenges – I’ve got some more challenges lined up this year to test my skills and have some fun. Like last year I’m aiming for 1 per week and we’ll see what happens. While I have a rough plan for this year’s challenges, if you have any suggestions do feel free to leave them in the comments – If I don’t get round to them this year, I can always save them up for 2027!

As per previous years, I’ll be doing weekly updates on the blog every Sunday (starting from 12th July) and daily updates on my Instagram to hold myself accountable. I’m not sure how much of my list I’ll get through, and as those of you who’ve followed along my challenges before will know, I often have to adapt my challenge as things arise!

If you are also joining in with Tour de Fleece this year feel free to share your goals and progress in the comments section throughout. For anyone interested in seeing what I got up to in previous years you can search posts from July since 2021 in the archives below!

Happy Spinning!

Spun Singles: Biomorphic Lace Gloves

It’s been a goal of mine this year to make one project per month (aside from Tour de Fleece when there’s already a lot going on). I have a long list of projects I want to make, many of which have been put on the backburner over the past few years, and quite a bit of yarn and fabric from my early days of blogging waiting to be turned into something, so focusing on one a month seem a logical way to work through things. So far I’ve been managing well, however life has habbit of upending the best laid plans and I ended up with a spontaneous sewing project (blog post to follow later this year) alongside other committments, leaving me with very little time to work on a project for this month.

I needed something quick and easy that was unlikely to go wrong; unfortunately that excluded all the projects on my list! I’d also started to think about prepping for Tour de Fleece (clearing bobbins and spindles etc.) and had a spindle full of zwartbles I’d spun as a single during some recent demo’s. Initially I was going to ply it and add it to my stash, but I began to wonder if I could do something with it as is (particularly since I used it to illustrate how to spin thicker and thinner yarn, so it wasn’t the most even). Lace knitting is usually the go-to for spun singles, and I began to think of the fishnet gloves I used to wear in dance costumes in my youth. After browsing the internet and my knitting books for inspiration nothing was calling out to me, and actual fishnet was too regimental for what I was imagining, so I began to wonder what it would look like if I just made my own pattern up.

There was a bit of trial and error in the process with a few frogged samples at the cast on stage, however the basic construction of the glove was simple and could be done in any type of stitch. Using needles slightly larger than what would normally suit the yarn, I cast on the number of stitches that would comfortably fit around my forearm at the elbow and knitted a couple of rows K1,P1 rib to give some structure before the lace pattern began. Since lace looks best when stretched out, I ended up taking out some stitches from the initial samples to avoid it being baggy. Then I knitted in the round until I had a tube that reached my wrist, randomly decreasing stitches and adding yarn overs to replace those lost so the stitch count stayed the same for every round.

Rib cast on with my little toadstool stitch marker from edelecticcrafts

I’ve never had a problem with laddering when using DPN’s (though am always mindful of it), but I realised early on that if I let the join between each pair of DPN’s hang loosely this would create another interesting lacey effect. I moved the DPN joins around every so often to avoid having any regimented sections running the length of the glove.

Close up of the lace effect taking shape

When I got to the wrist I had to decide what I was going to do about shaping the hand. I like the aesthetic of the fishnet gloves which have a hole for the thumb and fifth finger, however since I plan to wear these when demo-ing I realised that having fabric on the palm of my hand would be more likely to catch on wool and equipment, and potentially restrict my movement. So, the logical option was for me to decrease in a triangle, fastening the tip to the middle finger with a loop. I cast off the back of the wrist using another couple of rib rows, before working back and forth on the remaining stitches in lace pattern, decreasing at either side every so often, making a quick note so I could replicate on the other glove.

At the tip with one stitch remaining, I swapped to a crochet hook and chain stitched a loop long enough to wrap around my middle finger and meet the triangle tip again before securing and casting off. I then set about weaving in my ends (happily for this project there were very few!), before repeating the whole thing for the other glove.

For a project that was cooked up at the last minute with just a loose vision and some yarn, I think they turned out alright. They will be going on to form part of an outfit that I’m creating for demo’s etc. (the rest of which will hopefully be forthcoming later this year), but I think they’re elegant enough that I could probably get away with wearing them to a more formal occasion!

Happy Knitting!

Zwartbles: Weaving a Mystical Belt

Background

I have a small stash of vintage belt buckles and clasps picked up from various charity and vintage shops over the years, and I’ve been meaning to get them fixed up with new straps so they’re functional again. I’d been thinking of sewing some from fabric or ribbon, but I also thought it would be fun to have a go at weaving one with my handspun yarn. A Google image search for initial inspiration for handwoven belts returned lots of brightly coloured tablet woven straps and plenty of bead weaving, neither of which were quite what I was looking for, so I decided to look for historical examples. Unfortunately, the nature of natural fibres means historic textiles often don’t survive, however there is belt from a Bronze Age outfit found in Borum Eshøj (image here) and several artists have recreated it (this site has several good quality pictures). I wasn’t aiming to replicate the belt, but it gave me a good starting point and helped me to envisage what my handspun might look like once woven into a thin strip of fabric.

I had some coarser zwartbles yarn left over from my gothic hood warp, so decided this would be a perfect project to use it up (and would also help with some stash-busting ahead of this years TDF). I hadn’t put away all my purchases from EAYF, so was looking at the yak and silk blend I bought from Yarntings thinking how similar the colour was to the verdigris in some of my buckles, and was inspired to create a belt that incorporated it.

The Making

I began by spinning half of the yak/silk into a 2-ply yarn roughly matching the thickness to the Zwartbles; I didn’t know how much yarn I would need, so erred on the side of caution. I then set up a small sample on my pin loom with a Zwartbles warp and yak/silk weft so I could place buckles against it to choose my favourite (I forgot to take any photos at this stage!). I settled on a buckle that is quite Georgian in style with a prominent swirl pattern and some background filigree motifs. I’m not sure if this was originally a belt buckle, it seems too tall to have been a shoe buckle – either way, it’s an interesting design and deserved to be worn again.

I then measured the fastening slot that the strap would need to fit around, before setting this up in dpi on my rigid heddle loom. I opted for using a 10dpi reed, since this would give me the dense weave I was looking for, but in hindsight I think my warp yarn was more suited to 8dpi as I ended up with a few broken warp threads through repeated rubbing against the reed, which I’ll come back to later. I set up my weaving width on my weaver’s choice heddle and added some extra larger pieces to either side to help with stability (I find these interchangeable heddles so helpful for experimenting with mixed thickness warps, but it also saves me from having to buy /store lots of regular heddles).

I measured my warp to fit around my waist with some overlap where it would fit through the buckle, then added a little over 20% to account for shrinkage and loom waste. My loom threaded, I set about weaving. I started by replicating my pin loom sample using the yak/silk as the weft, however found myself not liking the effect (my sample warp was spread slightly wider), as it looked a little too like a checkerboard for what I envisioned. I tried a double clasped weft so the yak/silk would have been woven in the centre, but felt this made the weft too muted. I probably could have incorporated the yak/silk into the warp to have made the weft pop a bit more, but rather than re-threading everything, I decided I would make the belt with a plain weave in the zwartbles and embellish it with the yak/silk.

Decision made, I un-wove my experiments and started to weave with the zwartbles, being careful to keep my selvedge’s as straight as possible. Since I wanted a dense fabric, I beat down with the reed and then with the shuttle on the next pass, however I found that some of my handspun was slightly thicker in places, and repeated passing through the narrow reed caused one of my warp threads to separate. I repaired this rather unconventionally by knotting an extra piece of thread between the breaks and rigging a pick-up stick to help with tensioning, as I had a limited quantity of the matching warp thread and knew the knots would be covered and supported on the back. To mitigate it happening again, I decided to move the heddle between sheds and beat only with the shuttle, which worked well. I did have a few more warp thread breaks as I went along, but these were easily repaired.

Weaving complete, I removed it from the loom and washed it. While I’d been careful to keep my selvedge straight, I did notice that due to the slight variations in yarn diameter, there was a very gradual difference in fabric width, which is only really apparent when the fabric is folded over itself. Interestingly, perhaps because of the handspun variation or the repaired warp threads, there is also a slight curve to the fabric, which is a happy accident since it will follow the curve of my waist when worn.

Embelishment

I imagined Celtic style patterns for the embellishment, but also wanted to highlight the swirled pattern on the buckle itself. To keep the yarn smooth and emphasize the colour I decided to couch it into position on the belt, letting the yarn follow the swirling path that seemed natural, guiding it at the start and end of a section into a swirl similar to those on the belt buckle.

I felt it was missing something mystical so decided to experiment with some beading in places to evoke the little berries on the buckle. I left the area that would be pulled through the buckle without any beads to avoid them catching and fashioned the end into a point to make it easier to thread through.

I then added some cotton webbing to the back of the belt, both to give it some structure, and to protect the back of the embroidery, however I stopped short of the part that would slide through the buckle since it was too thick. To cover the back of that area I used a scrap of brown wool fabric, which also allowed the catch to pass through gaps in the weave without the need for setting in grommets (which means the sizing is much more adjustable).

Finally, I made a braided belt loop so the overlap didn’t flop downwards (this was done in a cobra stitch I remember using to make scoubidou’s at primary school!), and with that the belt was complete:

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the belt turned out – it’s really comfortable, holds good structure, and since I have nearly infinite fastening options I can wear it over everything from tunics to coats without the fit being compromised (I might even be able to fit a distaff in the side of it to spin from!). My one slight grievance is the catch being a bit fiddly to get through the fabric, however you may be able to see in the very first picture that the buckle originally had 3 clasps on the centre bar, but only the middle one remains, so I think this is more to do with the centre bar twist and the catch angle than the belt strap itself (having said that, once fastened it doesn’t readily unhook, so I can’t have it both ways!).

Happy Weaving!

Castlemilk Moorit: Breed Study Square 4

As with all my breed squares, I like to try and replicate the final project. In this case I wanted to adapt the lace work of the Falling Leaves Sweater onto the square, but the pattern is designed for working increases around the yoke, the leaves would need to have been smaller and the cable work would have needed lots of adapting. Rather than rewrite the whole pattern to fit a square, I decided to utilise another lacework leaf pattern and add in elements from the yoke lacework to fit the gaps. I had two balls of Castlemilk Moorit (CMM) yarn left over from the jumper that I thought about turning into gloves using the Forsyte pattern from Kate Atherley’s Knit Mitt’s book. I have a love hate relationship with this pattern – my edition of the book has a misprint in the lace chart, which resulted in initial confusion and I didn’t realise the sizing of my last attempt was completely wrong until I had to frog it 3 rows before the end, so I haven’t actually managed to knit the gloves yet (one day – I’m not giving up so easily!). I knitted a gauge swatch using the CMM and realised that it would be too thick to knit the gloves, however one section of the lace pattern would be the perfect size for the breed square.

I rewrote the leaf lace chart for knitting back and forth instead of in the round and added a purl border either side onto which I made sized down bobbles taken from the Autumn Leave’s jumper yoke pattern. Despite the photo not being the clearest (the lacework only shows up on a light background), I’m quite pleased with how the square turned out and it matches the jumper quite well. I am however, glad I didn’t knit the mittens with this yarn; the daintier lacework would definitely be shown off better with a smoother, thinner yarn. This does mean I still have a couple of balls of coarser Castlemilk Moorit left over, so there may be another project with this fleece in the future – for the time being I think it will be living in my handspun stash.

Happy Knitting!

Castlemilk Moorit: Falling Leaves Sweater

Background

Way back in 2024 I purchased a jumper knitting pattern from Hirismakes at EAYF thinking it could be a fantastic project option for my Castlemilk Moorit (at that point I’d started hand carding the fleece, but put it aside as I wasn’t a hundred percent happy with the rolags). As you know, I like to connect my finished projects to the story of the breed in some way, and felt that this pattern was appropriate considering the breeds origins on the Castlemilk estate and near extinction later on (they are still on the RBST’s watchlist). So, this was a subtly symbolic project with the falling leaves representing the landscape the sheep were bred in (Castlemilk, like many grand estates has a history of forestry), their initial ornamental use, and the precarity of the breed over time.

Castlemilk Moorit is also the perfect colour for autumn leaves, but after spinning the yarn last year and discovering quite a bit of it was coarser than I would be comfortable with next to my skin, I wasn’t sure if clothing was the best choice. However, I then realised that this pattern has a lot of lacework, particularly around the bust, so I would be wearing a layer underneath anyway which would hopefully negate any coarseness. My only concern was if I would have enough softer yarn, however this jumper is knitted from the top down (making a change from the bottom-up jumpers I’ve made so far!), so I decided to start knitting the yoke and if I was worried about the quantity of yarn, I could look at using another yarn for the main body and have it two tone (I later decided against this as I didn’t feel it looked quite right and thankfully had enough Castlemilk Moorit).

Knitting

Unlike some of my other knitting projects, I didn’t make any changes, modifications or adaptions to this pattern, so it was just a case of following the instructions. Ahead of casting on, I knitted a very quick swatch and noted that though my yarn was not quite as chunky in appearance as those referenced in the pattern, it wasn’t gappy. However, being handspun by me and therefore textured, it did lack some of the stitch definition illustrated in the original pattern – this isn’t a problem on the finished garment (in fact I think it looks more tree-like), but it did make it a little harder to see the lace pattern evolve as I was knitting the yoke.

I’m not a crocheter, so I was befuddled by the crocheted bobble instructions, but discovered that Iris has a tutorial for these on Youtube, which helped make sense of everything. The lacework finished, it was time to divide for the sleeves. I’ve been using Lykke interchangeable needles for a few of my projects now – I purchased them second-hand and this project made good use of the shorter cables and stoppers. I was able to transfer sleeve stitches to a shorter cable with stoppers at the end while I knitted the body, which gave the armholes some structure when trying it on for length. I also made use of the joiners when trying on the jumper, as the longest cable in the set isn’t quite wide enough to get over my shoulders, but using the joiners I can add another cable’s length.

I completely forgot to switch to the smaller needles on the ribbing of the body, but I don’t think it’s too noticeable and creates a more slouchy waistline on what is otherwise a more fitted jumper. I then re-attached my needles to the sleeves one at a time to continue knitting. I’m not a fan of the magic loop method and prefer to use either DPN’s or a small circular, but since I don’t have the right size of either, I opted to use a slightly fudged combination of magic loop and DPN technique with my existing cable. I remembered to switch to the smaller needles for the ribbed cuffs on the sleeves and then all that was left was to weave in the ends.

I used around 700m of yarn for this jumper and did end up having to use some of the coarser yarn for the bottom of the body and sleeves (where it comes into the least contact with the skin so isn’t noticeable). Though not quite as dramatic as some of my more recent projects, this jumper is perfect for throwing on as an extra layer when it’s chilly and feels like a woolly hug!

Happy Knitting!

East Anglia Yarn Festival 2026

This weekend was the 5 year anniversary of East Anglia Yarn Festival, so I had a day filled with yarn networking and fibre squishing. Despite having two full bags by the end of the day, my haul was quite small and filled with useful things, but I made lots of new connections with lovely people. My fibre purchases this year were two cone ends from Free Range Fibre – one a beautiful brown alpaca, the other a grey Shetland, which will be useful for weaving projects, but could also double as edging on sewing projects, and a 50g yak & silk roving from Yarntings as it was just the right colour to go with some of my very early art yarns, so will hopefully encourage me to think up a project for them (and since yaks aren’t native to England it could be a while before I can process a whole fleece start to finish!).

Yarntings also had some wool and silk embroidery threads in beautiful colours which I plan to use in future sewing projects. By the same token, I also purchased some beautiful leafy ceramic buttons from Buttoned Up and a matching pin dish that will hopefully stop my sewing pins going missing mid-project. I’ve been looking for some sock blockers for a while, but wasn’t keen on versions I’d seen with cartoony flowers, so was pleased to find some plain ones from Tom Dyson. I’ve been gradually working my way through some of the knitting patterns I bought in previous years (more on one of those soon), so decided I would treat myself to the Petulia scarf brioche pattern from Kath Andrews; I’ve never knitted brioche before, but after Kath’s demo felt I should definitely tackle it, and add another string to my knitting bow.

My final purchases consisted of a little pumpkin candle (because it’s never too early to prepare for autumn!) and a gift for a friend (not pictured) from Morningstar Makes, and after admiring her ceramic yarn bowls for such a long time, and seeing this beautiful second (it has a glaze drip blocking the thread guide) in a matching colour to my mug from last year, I decided to give it a good home (and I can put the imperfection to use so it can hold two threads at once without them crossing over!).

Because a yarn fair wasn’t busy enough, a friend and I also booked in a stained glass workshop in the evening with visiting artist Colin at the wonderful Blue Flame Glass Studio. It meant leaving EAYF a little earlier than I normally would, but was fantastic fun. I’m hoping to visit some other fibre fairs this year, but my diary is very unpredictable, so I will see how things pan out. In the meantime, I’m beavering away at more woolly projects which will be coming shortly!

Happy Crafting!